Employment law has been introduced for the purpose of balancing the rights and liabilities between employers and employees (Walsh 2015). The main legislation, which governs the employment relationship in Australia, is known as the Fair Work Act 2009 (Painter and Holmes 2015). The Fair Work Commission has been incorporated under the legislation for the purpose of governing employment law issues in Australia (Blanpain and Bisom-Rapp 2014). This report has the primary purpose of dealing with Clerks private sectors award 2010 and how they apply employees in the practical scenario. The report also has the purpose of dealing with enterprise agreements which takes place between employees of an organisation and the organisation in order to analyse whether the conditions under the clerk private sector awards 2010 is better or the conditions under the enterprise agreement is more beneficial for the employees. The question of the report would be analysed by comparing both the provisions of the clerk private sector awards and an enterprise agreement in the light of two practical scenarios.
In this scenario it has been provided that Tracey who is a casual employee as ask for a pay review. In relation to her current wages she is provided $17 for every hour work. It has also been provided through the scenario that Tracey has proven herself to be a great team player and therefore wants a pay rise. She has a knowledge that her current wages are not in compliance to the rates provided in the clerk private sector award in the light of her age and role. It has been provided through part 3 section 12 of the clerks’ private sector award 2010 that a casual employee is any employee who have been engaged as a casual employee. A casual employee has to be provided per hour wages at a rate of 1/38th of the weekly rate in relation to the class of work performed with an additional 25% (Fair Work Commission., 2018).
This is provided against entitlement to leave and other matters which are not provided to the casual employee under the national employment standards and this award (Williams 2015). In addition it has been provided that casual employees have to be paid at the time of every engagement termination or weekly or fortnightly in the same way as full time employees are paid (Lewin and Gollan 2018).
Minimum payment for 3 hours of work at an appropriate rate is a General entitlement of casual employees. In relation to the minimum weekly basis of Level 1 year 1 it is $580. However, in the given situation Tracey has already completed one year of work with the company. Where a person has completed 2 years as level 1 they are entitled to a wedge of $610 per week. This means that her hourly rate would be 610 / 38 which is equals to $16.05. She is also entitled to an additional 25%. This means that her wages would be 20.06 dollars per hour.
In the current scenario she is only been provided with $17 per hour. Therefore the claim which has been made by her is correct and she is entitled to a pay raise under the clerk private sector award 2010. The claim she has made can be further strengthen through the application of the case of (C2018/1). In this case it had been provided by the court that it is the duty of the employee to pay the minimum applicable wages to the Employees and if this is not done so the employers are violating the provisions of the legislation or any awards which are applicable. In the given situation cloud private sector award 2010 clearly states that Tracey is entitled to receive payment of $20.06 per hour as she has been working for more than a year with organization. Therefore it is the duty of the organization to increase her wages in relation to the wage claim made by her.
In the next situation it has been provided that Tom Davis who is also an employee has made a request to the HR department by a way of letter to make his working arrangements flexible. The reason, which he has mentioned in the letter, shows that his daughter has returned to work and she has a kid who needs to be cared for by Davis so that he can help her daughter adjust at work. The age of Tom in this situation is 64 years. The HR department has received the letter 2 weeks ago but has not made any response in relation to it. It has been provided in the situation that Tom is also happy to be flexible at any day of the week as decided by the company. However also not impossible it would be difficult to manage the flexible timings in the unit as indicated by the line manager of Tom Davis.
Under the provisions of Section 30 of the awards it has been provided that personal or carers leave for employees can be provided under the award. Under the provisions of section 27.5 and 27.6 of the awards it has been provided that an employee has the right to take off time in lieu of overtime or makeup time. This means that if the employee takes off any time during the working hours then with the consent of the employer he can make up the time (Johnstone and Stewart 2015). In addition it has been provided that under section 25.4 and employer has the right to substitute the days of an employee for another day in case of a request made by the employee (Kavanagh and McRae 2017).
Therefore, in the given situation the manager has all rights to alter the working hours of Davis. However, there is no obligation officially imposed on the line manager to allow device for changing his shift time as although it is not impossible it is very difficult to do so. Therefore, in the given situation the line manager has alright it’s not to allow Davis to take the shift time changes. Further, in the case of C2002/4178 it has been stated by the court that employees are not entitled to anything which is not provided for in the Clerk private sector awards or the National Employment Standards. There for a specific provisions in relation to change in working hours for flexible working time is not provided under the National Employment Standards or the Clerks private sector awards the line manager is under no obligation to allowed Davis to make is working time flexible. However, the manager has the right to do so if he agrees and in the well being of the employee.
In the third part it has been provided that recently the accounts department has reduced their head count as there has been an introduction of a new automated system which helps with the scanning of invoices and received. Therefore there are two employees who are to be provided with Final employment payments in relation to the week. One of the employees is Cheryl Banks who has started to work on 1st January 2018. The Other employee is Patrick Sands who has started to work on 3rd February 2015. The clerk private sector awards also deal the provisions in relation to redundancy. The provisions in redundancy are provided under section 14 (Moyle et al. 2015). The section states that redundancy is provided for under the national employment under.
Provisions in relation to transfer of lower paid duties are provided under section 14.2. Provisions in relation to employee leaving during the notice period are provided under section 14.3. it has been provided by the section that employment may be terminated by an employee during the notice period. Benefits and payments would still be entitled to be received by such employee. Upon the termination of the employment the employees are entitled to receive a redundancy payment. In relation to clerical awards any person who has been working for a period of At least 1 year but less than 2 years is entitled to four weeks of redundancy payment. Any person who has been working for a period of At least 2 years but less than 3 years is entitled to receive 6 weeks as redundancy payments. Any person who has worked for a period of At least 3 years but less than 4 years is entitled to 7 weeks payment. In the given situation, Cheryl Banks has not worked for a period of at least one year so she is not entitled to receive any payments. However, Patrick Sands has been working for At least 3 years but less than 4 years.
Therefore, in the given situation he is entitled to get 7 weeks payment in form of redundancy payments. These provisions have been discussed by the courts in various cases such as the cases of C2002/4659 – Retail and Wholesale Industry – Shop Employees – Australian Capital Territory – Award 2000 and C2002/4091 – Retail and Wholesale Industry – Shop Employees – ACT – Award 2000 (Howe, Berg and Farbenblum 2018). Thus in the given situation in relation to the redundancy payments of the two employees it can be stated that Cheryl Banks who has not worked for a period of at least one year so she is not entitled to receive any payments. Patrick Sands who has been working for At least 3 years but less than 4 years in the given situation is entitled to get 7 weeks payment in form of redundancy payments.
In this section of the paper the same situations which have been discussed above would be discussed in the light of Enterprise agreements which have been selected for the purpose of the analysis.
The organization which has been selected for the purpose of answering this section is Tasmanian Networks Pty Ltd T/A TasNetworks. The organization had been formed on 1st July 2014 via a merger between Transend Networks (the big towers and lines) and Aurora Energy’s distribution network (the poles and wires). The corporation is owned by Tasmanian state, which supplies power from generation sources to businesses and homes via a network of substations, towers and power lines. The organization also indulges operating, building and maintaining the network, create new connections where currently there is no infrastructure, respond to faults, repairs and outrages, maintain and operate fault call center, replace, read and repair meter, provide advice in relation to electrical safety and provide training to contracts and sub-contractors, line worker apprentices, civil construction organisations and local councils.
The purpose of the organization is to deliver telecommunication and electric network services and create value for the community, clients and the owners. The enterprise agreement in relation to the organization has been made under the provisions of section 185 of the FWA. The agreement is known as TasNetworks Agreement 2016-2019. The agreement as stated in para 3 does not cover all of the employees of the organization however the group of employee have been selected in the agreement on a fair basis. The agreement covers Australian municipal, The Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia, Clerical and Services Union as well as The Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia were the bargaining representatives of the agreement and want to be covered under the agreement under a notice given via s 183 of the Act. The agreement covers the organization as per s 201(2). The agreement had been provided an approval on 13 June 2017 and, in compliance with s.54, come to effect from 20 June 2017 and expire on 31 December 2019.
In this scenario it has been provided that Tracey who is a casual employee as ask for a pay review. In relation to her current wages she is provided $17 for every hour work. It has also been provided through the scenario that Tracey has proven herself to be a great team player and therefore wants a pay rise. It has been provided through the enterprise agreement that a casual employee is an employee who is employed by hour as and when required basis. An hourly rate is provided to a casual employee for every hour of work done by them. Hourly rate is to be calculated from Classification and Remuneration Table provided in the enterprise agreement as per section 6.5(b). It has been provided by clause 6.5(c) that casual employees are to be provided with a casual loading of 25% for each hour worked in addition to the salary structure which has been discussed above.
It has been provided by clause 6.5(d) that casual employees are to be provided with penalty rates which are applicable to rostered shifts worked by a causal employee based on general pay. A minimum of three hours of employment is to be provided to a Casual Employee under the agreement. It has been further provided by clause 6.5(f) those casual employees are not entitled to any leave entitlements which are provided to normal employees under the National Employment Standards. For grade 1 employees the enterprise agreement provides for a EA salary of $40,263 – 56,806 and an award salary of $36,150 for Administrative Grade 1 and $38,470 for Administrative Grade 2.
In this situation the wages Tracey would be entitled to a Administrative Grade 2 pay as she has been working for more than a year and is performing well. Thus in the given situation as her annual pay would be 38,470 her weekly wage would be $737 (38470/52) per week and subsequently her weekly pay would be $ 19.36 (737/38). In addition Tracey would be provided with an addition 25% of her wages which would be $4.85 and thus her final wages would be $24.25. This signifies that the wages she would be entitled to get would be more than that of under the Clerks private sectors award 2010 (Fair Work Commission., 2018). Under the award she would only be entitled to get minimum weekly basis of Level 1 year 1 which is $580. Thus accordingly her hourly rate would be 610 / 38 which is equals to $16.05. She is also entitled to an additional 25%. This means that her wages would be 20.06 dollars per hour. This rate is less than $24.25 and thus the conditions under the enterprise agreement are better than the terms which have been provided through the provisions of Clerks private sectors award 2010 (Fair Work Commission., 2018).
In the third part, it has been provided that recently the accounts department has reduced their head count as there has been an introduction of a new automated system which helps with the scanning of invoices and received. Therefore there are two employees who are to be provided with Final employment payments in relation to the week. One of the employees is Cheryl Banks who has started to work on 1st January 2018. The Other employee is Patrick Sands who has started to work on 3rd February 2015. The provisions in relation to redundancy are also dealt by the selected enterprise agreement. Section 29 of the enterprise agreement provides for redundancy entitlements for employees of the organization.
According to section [29] redundancy situation refers to an employment situation for the organization where it no longer requires the jib to be performed by the employee or anyone, as there has been a change in its operational requirements. A redundant employee is any employee whose services have become redundant because of the redundancy. Under the agreement, the organization is to avoid the termination of the employee as much as possible. The termination would only be applicable where there are no suitable job positions for the employee in the organization. Under the agreement the organization is to provide four days off for looking for other employment for the employee without deducting pay. Under the enterprise agreement as provided under table 2 a redundant employee is to be provided with a total payment of 6 weeks for 1 year of service completed. The redundant employee is to be provided with a total payment of 8 weeks for 2 year of service completed. The redundant employee is to be provided with a total payment of 11 weeks for 3 year of service completed. The redundant employee is to be provided with a total payment of 14 weeks for 4 year of service completed.
In the given situation, Cheryl Banks has not worked for a period of at least one year so she is not entitled to receive any payments as the enterprise agreement does not provide for any payment to those working for less than a year. However, Patrick Sands has been working for At least 3 years but less than 4 years. Therefore, in the given situation he is entitled to get 11 weeks payment in form of redundancy payments. The conditions provided for in the enterprise agreement are much better than that of the clerks’ private sector awards 2010. This is because as per the clerks’ private sector awards 2010 Patrick Sands who has been working for At least 3 years but less than 4 years is entitled to get 7 weeks payment in form of redundancy payments. On the other hand in the same situation if the enterprise agreement is applied he would be entitled to get 11 weeks of payments. Thus the position under the enterprise agreement is better.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the provisions of Clerk’s private sector awards provides rules in relation to how employees are to dealt by under different situations such as pay raise, flexible workings hours and redundancy. On the other hand the provisions which have been provided under the enterprise agreement also deals with rules in relation to how employees are too dealt by under different situations such as pay raise, flexible workings hours and redundancy. However from the above analysis it can be stated that the provisions under enterprise agreements are better for employees as compared to that of wages and redundancy. This is because Tracey was only getting $20.06 under the awards and $24.85 under the agreement. In addition Patrick was provided with 7 weeks payment for redundancy under the awards but only 11 weeks of payment under the agreement.
References
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